John Bryson, PhD

McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

John Bryson, PhD, is McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He works in the areas of leadership, strategic management, collaboration, and the design of engagement processes. Recent books include Public Value and Public Administration (co-edited with Barbara C. Crosby and Laura Blomberg, Georgetown University Press, 2015); Visual Strategy (with Fran Ackermann and Colin Eden, Jossey-Bass, 2014); and Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 4th Edition (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Bryson is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and received the 2011 Dwight Waldo Award from the American Society for Public Administration for “outstanding contributions to the professional literature of public administration over an extended scholarly career.”

Bryson has received many other awards for his work, including four best book awards, three best article awards, the General Electric Award for Outstanding Research in Strategic Planning from the Academy of Management, and the Distinguished Research Award and the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration given jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the international Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration. He serves on a number of editorial boards, including those for Public Management Review, International Public Management Journal, and Perspectives on Public Management Governance.

He has consulted with a wide variety of governing bodies, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and for-profit corporations in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He holds a doctorate and master of science degree in urban and regional planning and a master of arts degree in public policy and administration, all from the University of Wisconsin. He has a BA in economics from Cornell University.